Hillsdale County students, teachers fare well at iChallengeU 2014

Get involvedIf you know of a student or a teacher who would be interested in getting involved in the program during the summer of 2015, contact Bob Tebow at rtebow@scmw.org.

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Get involved

If you know of a student or a teacher who would be interested in getting involved in the program during the summer of 2015, contact Bob Tebow at rtebow@scmw.org.

JACKSON — iChallengeU is a two-week educational opportunity for students to work with area teachers, corporate, civic and community leaders to develop solutions to real problems posed by those individuals.

The iChallengeU program ran from July 7-18. The final day consisted of presentations by six student groups to a tri-county judging panel, parents, teachers, principals and community leaders. The presentation was held at the Jackson College Potter Center.

McCosh worked with a group of students from Jackson. Their task was to promote and attract attention to career opportunities requiring a two-year degree or less. The group worked for South Central Michigan Works (SCMW).

McCosh’s team created a video, a brochure, a t-shirt and a poster. They came up with a new slogan for SCMW: "GOT JOBS? … we do!" The judges said they were a highly creative group and especially liked their idea for creating a robot called the "occupationator."

Giron worked with the Hillsdale and Jonesville students at Martinrea. Their challenge was, "What change could Martinrea implement to improve attendance?"

Emily, Shelby, Sydney and Alycia created a survey, conducted advanced data analysis and presented a full business report to the staff at Marinrea. Some of their ideas included: changing from mandatory to voluntary overtime, instituting a break system, having rotating weekends off between shifts, and providing cross-training on various machine systems. The judges were very impressed that the girls gathered and analyzed all of their own data.

Donny Crumbsy, the organization development and human resources director at Martinrea, was extremely impressed with their work. He said he wished that the program lasted longer than two weeks.

The students also spoke positively of the experience.

"Initially, I joined this project for the college credits and to improve my public speaking fear," said McDonough. "Participating in this program has led to a more knowledgeable experience. I have learned what it is like in a factory setting and how a real work environment feels. I have also learned some key cooperation skills having to work with a group."

Webster, multimedia and marketing instructor at the HCISDCC, worked with all six teams and the director of the program, Bob Tebow. She followed the teams around Hillsdale, Lenawee and Jackson counties to create a series of videos showcasing the student projects and the iChallengeU program. These videos can be found on the South-Central Michigan Works website, www.scmw.org.

The other four groups worked with the Lenawee County United Way, Orbitform, Southern Michigan Center for Science and Industry and the TLC Community Credit Union. Their projects ranged from marketing challenges to finding resources for exotic metals. The winning team was a group of students from Michigan Center who worked at Orbitform to find supply streams of exotic metals.

Page 2 of 2 - All students earned two college credits from either Jackson College or Siena Heights University. The winning team members earn $1,000 college scholarships from their choice of Eastern Michigan University, Baker College, Jackson College, Spring Arbor University or Siena Heights University.

All of the participants agreed that the iChallengeU program takes learning way beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Students, teachers and business leaders alike all learned a great deal from participating in the program.

"I learned how to gather, analyze and apply data, how to take into consideration both sides of the spectrum, and how to turn suggestions into well-constructed procedures," said Dawson.